India effectively strips four million of citizenship in Assam

People stand in line to check their names on the first draft of the National Register of Citizens in Assam in January. [AFP]

India on Monday effectively stripped four million people in Assam of citizenship, sparking fears of mass deportations of Muslims from the northeastern state.

The draft National Register of Citizens (NRC), published on Monday, includes only those able to prove they were in Assam before 1971, when millions fled Bangladesh's war of independence into the state.